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Arsenal dressing room faces toughest test after Aston Villa defeat
- Arsenal lost 2-0 to Aston Villa as Manchester City now hold a form advantage, with Mikel Arteta stating the Gunners now face a big test to correct their fortunes
By Adam Schultz
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta says that the confidence in the club's dressing room now faces its biggest test after their 2-0 loss to Aston Villa.
It is a long, gruelling season filled with twists and turns and for Arsenal, this latest turn could be devastating to their Premier League title ambitions.
The 2-0 loss to Aston Villa now means that Arsenal has handed the title advantage to Manchester City. In years gone by, the confidence of the playing group would have taken a serious hit after a performance like this, and going by manager Mikel Arteta, who was asked about his confidence among the characters in the dressing room, he didn't sound all too confident.
"We don’t have any other solutions, if you want to win championships, if you want to be there in the Champions League when you have these moments, you have to stand up," Arteta said via arsenal.com. "If not then that means you don’t have quality that is very necessary and right now is a big test for us."
💬 “We have to show real character and cohesion and togetherness, because on Wednesday we have a beautiful opportunity to make history again at this club.”
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 14, 2024
Mikel on our upcoming opportunity 👇
After last season's capitulation that handed City the title, Arteta will not want history to repeat itself as the Gunners are in a position to still overtake Guardiola's side...even if a lot has to go right.
But first is a daunting away trip to the Allianz Arena to face Bayern Munich in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash. The Gunners can't allow the sour feeling of the Villa defeat to permeate through the playing group.
Now is the time for the club's leaders in Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, Declan Rice and Gabriel to stand up and lead the team through what will be a difficult next couple of days.
Arteta didn't seem too confident in his players' ability to mentally move on from the loss to Villa, so what better way to make the manager a believer than to go to Bavaria and slay the German giants?
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